If it's not fascism, it's Trumpism

If we could take a time machine back to 2014 and show Republicans footage of what Donald Trump is saying and doing, they would call it fascist. They would swear they would never support such language or actions and yet here we are. Or here they are.

Donald Trump and his administration are escalating the divisions in the country with dangerous rhetoric and behavior. They are calling Democrats domestic enemies and using force to undermine local authorities. They are provoking protesters to lash out against ICE in Portland, looking for an excuse to declare martial law. They are itching for a civil war and no Republicans are going to say anything. They will just fall in line.

Stephen Miller tweeted this weekend. “There is a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country. It is well organized and funded. It is shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors, and attorneys general. The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.” Joseph Goebbels couldn’t have said it better.

At his speech commemorating the Navy’s 250 birthday, Donald Trump said, “We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats.” On his Truth Social site, Trump called Democrats “the party of Hate, Evil, and Satan.” Clearly, Trump only sees himself as the president of people who agree with him, not the whole country.

Instead of calling for restraint or asking the White House to tone down the rhetoric, Republicans are offering political cover. They are unified in blaming the left for the political violence in the country while downplaying the assassination of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, the pardoning of January 6 insurrectionists, and the firebombing of a Democratic judge’s house this weekend. They pretend the ICE raids that drag people out of houses, tackle them on the street, and assault bystanders documenting their behavior are police actions, not authoritarian ones.

They are enabling something. If it’s not fascism, then what is it? Let’s just call it Trumpism and define it as using the power of the federal government to usurp local power, suppress political opposition, empower white nationalism, militarize law enforcement, sanction government grift, establish government-controlled communication channels, and require unquestioned loyalty to the administration instead of the Constitution.

Republicans fall into several loose categories. The MAGAs are on board, openly supporting dictatorship and authoritarianism. The whataboutists justify Trump’s abuse of power with false equivalencies, claiming Democrats used similar tactics and that they, too, put party before country. The free marketeers like the Cato Institute are very serious people who frown on tariffs but welcome the tax cuts while pretending not to notice the grift, authoritarianism, and assault on the rule of law.

Finally, there are the denialists who downplay Trump’s actions as more performance than reality. They believe Democrats are overreacting to being called domestic terrorists and that we will, in fact, have legitimate elections in the future. Of course they also believed that Trump would respect a peaceful transfer of power in 2020 and don’t really believe he’s using the Justice Department and FBI to go after his political enemies. They accept that restricting access to the ballot box is a legitimate political strategy.

So Republicans aren’t a fascist party. They are Trumpist. Collectively, they refuse to hold Donald Trump accountable for his bad behavior. Criticism is tepid at best, but usually nonexistent. The party is divided between those who cheerfully charge into authoritarianism and those will allow themselves to be pulled or fooled.

Regardless of how they got here, the gatekeepers are gone and the guardrails are down. Trump and his administration have declared the opposition party “the enemy within.” They are calling for troops to enter cities in Democratic states and they are preparing the military to attack Americans. Call it whatever you want.